46. Hendricks
HENDRICKS
Iwake up the second I hear the soft snick of my door unlatching.
Training has me pretending to be asleep while I reach under my pillow for my gun, but then I hear the now familiar sound of Mandy’s bare feet on the hardwood and next I catch the scent of her shampoo.
Fuck, it smells delicious. Just a whiff and I’m getting hard. Of course, I’m lying in my boxer briefs in case she needed me again, and the most alluring woman I’ve ever met is creeping toward my bed.
I can feel her watching me. I keep my breathing even, waiting. What is she doing?
My cock throbs, wanting to suggest an idea or two.
The mattress dips slightly as she sits on the edge. She’s silent for a long moment. "Hendricks,” she says, her voice soft and uncertain in a way I've never heard from her before.
I open my eyes.
She's wearing one of my black T-shirts. On me it’s fitted. On her it’s oversized, hanging to her upper thigh. Her hair is messy, falling loose around her shoulders. No makeup. No smirk.
"I need to ask you something," she says. Her hands rest in her lap, fingers twisting together—a tell I've never seen from her before.
I sit up, the sheet pooling at my waist. "Ask."
Her gaze flits over me and she takes a breath. As she releases it, she says, "I want you to fuck me."
The words land like a detonation. I don't move. Don't speak. It’s her ball, and she’s going to have to run with it.
She meets my eyes, and there's no game in her expression. No challenge—just raw honesty. “I want you. I've wanted you since the moment you walked into the kitchen at Blackthorn Ranch, and I'm tired of pretending I don't."
My jaw tightens. My cock hardens more, pressing against the sheet, but I ignore it. This is important.
She fidgets with the edge of the sheet. "Are you going to say something?"
"I’m waiting for you to finish."
She meets my gaze with her typical forthrightness.
"When I was taken, I had so many regrets. Things I thought I’d get to later, things I thought I had time to experience.
Then my life changed in the blink of an eye.
So when I got free, I made myself a promise.
I wasn’t going to do that anymore. I wasn’t going to spend the time I had left wondering what would’ve happened if I’d taken a chance.
I’m not going to lie awake ten years from now wondering what would have happened if I’d been brave enough to choose you. ”
Every thought in my head goes silent.
Mandy gives me the most vulnerable smile I’ve ever seen on her. “No regrets, Hendricks.”
For once, she isn’t daring me. She’s asking me.
I reach out slowly, giving her time to pull back. When she doesn't, I cup her jaw, my thumb brushing over her cheekbone, where the little sickle-shaped scar is. "If we do this, it's not going to be soft."
"I don't like it soft.” With courage I haven’t seen in many men—and that’s saying something given my background—she says, “My time in Turner’s ring fucked me up. Pleasure and pain go hand in hand for me. I can’t come softly. If that’s not going to work, tell me now.”
“Amanda, everything about you works for me.”
“Thank God.” She exhales long and deep.
My thumb traces her lower lip. "But you need to understand what you're asking for."
"Tell me."
I hold her gaze. "I'm going to give you exactly what you ask for. No hesitation. No holding back. And when you’ve had enough, you're going to tell me."
Her breath hitches. "What if I don’t have enough?"
My thumb drags over her bottom lips. "Then we’re going to be here awhile."
The certainty in my voice makes her pupils dilate. "What else?" she asks.
"You tell me what you need. What you want. What's off-limits."
She blinks. "What?"
"Boundaries, Mandy. We negotiate them now, or this doesn't happen."
She stares at me for a long moment. "You’re going to negotiate sex like a contract?"
"Yes."
She licks her lip. "That's so fucking hot."
My hand tightens slightly on her jaw. "Focus."
"I am focused." She shifts closer, her knee pressing against my thigh. "I need it rough. Not violent. I don't want to be hurt. But I need to feel it."
I nod slowly. "What else?"
"I want your hands on me. Your mouth. I want you to push me, to make me beg."
"You will." I study her. “You trust me to give you that?”
Her mouth falls open and her breathing quickens. “Yes.”
Good. “Next.”
She swallows audibly. “You’ll stop if I want?”
“The second you want me to.” Because I need her to see the truth, I bring her closer so she can see into my eyes. “You say stop, I stop.”
Something in her expression changes. “Okay.”
“Anything else?”
"I want to see you lose control." Her hand comes up, fingers tracing the line of my jaw. "I want to know what you look like when you stop thinking and just feel."
My cock throbs. I’m already a second away from that. "Anything off-limits?"
She considers. "No blood."
“Restraints?” I can’t imagine she’d want to be held down, but I’m asking. I lower my hand to her throat.
Her breath catches, and she shifts on the bed. “Hold me down,” she says, her voice husky. “But no restraints.”
"Understood."
"And Hendricks?"
I tip her head up to see her eyes. "Yeah?"
"I want to hear you say my name when you come."
The request is so simple, so intimate, it nearly undoes me. "Deal," I say.
She leans in, her lips brushing mine. "Then take me, Adrian."
The use of my real name makes me freeze.
She starts to laugh, her hand moving behind my head to play with my hair. “Did you really think I wouldn’t ferret it out?”
“I buried that name a long time ago. No one calls me that.”
Her old smirk twists her lips. “I’m not no one.”
There was never anything more fucking true. I pull her onto my lap in one smooth motion, her thighs straddling mine. “You can only call me that when you’re coming.”
“Make me,” she shoots back breathlessly.
I twine her hair around my fist and slowly, softly tug her head back. “Last chance.”
Her lips curve. “Okay, Adrian.”
I stand, lifting her with me. "I'm not stopping until you're wrecked."
Her legs wrap around my waist. "Promises, promises."
I lower her back down to the bed with me on top, pressing her into the mattress. I watch, making sure she’s still with me, that what she said she wants is congruent with what her mind and body want.
She uses her legs to pull me down so I’m heavy on her, my groin notched between her legs.
Fuck me—she’s not wearing panties.
I can feel her heat through my underwear, and I grind myself against her core. I want to turn the light on. I want to see the wet spot I know she’s making on my shorts. “I want to take my cock out and dredge it through your cunt.”
Her head falls back, her hands clutching me. “Fuck yes. What are you waiting for?”
“This.” I lower my head and claim her mouth like I've been dying to for five weeks. She gasps, her hands fisting in my hair, and I swallow the sound. I watch her, cataloging the way she reacts and how she moves as I kiss her.
Her eyes open and she looks up at me, hazel eyes dark with want and trust.
She's giving me this—giving me her—and I'm going to make damn sure she never regrets it.